Frequently asked questions

USB Security

This question doesn't really pertain to any particular version of True Image so I thought I'd drop this here. I'm trying to find a 3rd party application that can emulate a network type username/password for a USB connected external hard drive? Since True Image prompts for credentials when connecting to network storage, I was hoping to protect my backups against unauthorised access (aka Ransomware).

I am aware that the latest versions of True Image have Ransomware protection as standard, however I own an older version and am happy with its stability and performance which I don't want to change.

Richard, I am not aware of any 3rd party application that can emulate a network type username/password for a USB connected external hard drive and am not convinced that having such would protect against malware / ransomware.

If your USB drive is connected to your system and you have accessed it via any credentials requested, then it is open for attack by any malware or ransomware that is able to get a foothold on your computer.

Your best protection is to try to ensure that malware or ransomware cannot get on your computer in the first place by keeping your Windows OS and all applications fully up to date with fixes for known vulnerabilities and following safe practices when dealing with email links, attachments and browsing the web. There are a range of malware protection applications available that you can install alongside your system firewall and antivirus protection, but the greatest risk for any computer system is that of 'user error' or clicking on something and giving permission for malware to get started.

The other key protection is to have multiple different backups held on different media and in different places, where at least one of these is offline and stored away from any threat (physical, climate etc).

Acronis provides the method of creating your backups, it also provides a method of encrypting those backup files using a password only you know, but the rest is really down to the user.

Personally, I like the new Acronis Active Protection (AAP) feature integrated with ATI 2018 & 2019 and have not found any performance impact of having this active & enabled. It offers another sense of peace of mind knowing that any attempt to encrypt, copy, change or delete my backup files will be blocked and that I will be alerted to any such activity.